Miami Man Sentenced to Prison for Cryptocurrency Fraud

A growing number of scams seek to attract investors with lucrative offers for low risk and high return. Amid the increasing popularity of crypto, more scammers emerge with new and innovative ways to trick people, taking their money away and this is precisely the case of a Miami man who was recently sentenced to prison.

Ryan James Crawford, a 30-year-old who presented himself as a licensed stockbroker who made millions of dollars from stock and cryptocurrency investment, was sentenced to prison for taking some $1 million from his victims. The man, who was also famous under the nickname “Brody,” ran a fraudulent cryptocurrency and stock investment scheme, the US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida announced Wednesday.

Crawford falsely represented himself as a successful stockbroker and this enabled him to receive money for potential investments. The 30-year-old also claimed that he was the mastermind behind a trading software powered by artificial intelligence that allowed him never to lose any investments.

Brody’s crimes were investigated by the USSS Miami, the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Cyber Crimes Investigative Unit, FBI Miami, as well as the Florida Office of Financial Regulation. For his involvement in the false cryptocurrency and stock investment scheme, Crawford was sentenced to 66 months (5.5 years) in federal prison. Moreover, he was also ordered to forfeit some $988,895.85.

Using Investors’ Money for Personal Expenditures

Usually, schemes that promise high payouts with low investment are known as Ponzi schemes. Dating back a century, the infamous Ponzi scheme revolves around fraudsters paying early investors money taken from other investors. The early investors are tricked that the money they receive is from the business whereas they are in fact taken from subsequent investors.

But while some might think that Brody ran a Ponzi scheme, this is far from the truth. In fact, the 30-year-old man’s fraudulent scheme was unsophisticated, as he simply used investors’ money for personal expenditures.

“Crawford did not return any victim funds, or generate the exponential returns he promised. Rather, on some occasions, he simply diverted investors’ funds and cryptocurrency for his own personal use, including to pay for luxury rental cars and gambling at the casino,“

explains a statement released by the US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida

Not only he did not return any money to his victims, but he also spent it on casino gambling, luxury rental cars, as well as expensive clothes. The scheme run by Crawford operated for two years, between June 2020 and March 2022, when he was arrested. A website called brodycrawford.com, created by one of his victims, suggests Brody had two dozen people who trusted him with a sum north of $1.1 million.